On the night of January 10, 1915, ecstatic Socialists paraded in
the streets of Star City, a village a few miles distant from
Morgantown, the Monongalia County seat and home of the state
university. Having just won their fourth consecutive municipal
election, party members had valid reason to celebrate. The 1915
race had been especially hard fought, with members of the rival
Citizens' party exerting every effort to oust the Socialists. Mayor
William Shay led the parade, beating a big bass drum. The
Morgantown New Dominion noted that Shay "allowed his
enthusiasm to get the better of him," and burst both sides of the
drum. The parading Socialists visited the homes of Citizens' party
members and serenaded the losing candidates. Finally Mayor Shay
addressed the crowd, arguing that it was a shame "citizens of the
town found it necessary to divide along political lines," and
invited the uninitiated to join the Socialist movement. As the
parade broke up, everyone headed to Socialist Hall, where
supporters of both parties enjoyed a dance.1

Founded in 1907, Star City was a very small town located on the
Monongahela River and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The
population of Star City in 1910 numbered 318, but the town grew
rapidly, expanding by more than 150 percent by 1918. The two chief
employers were Star Glass Company and factory "B" of Seneca Glass.
Residents in the 1907 municipal election felt that political
parties were unnecessary and elected a "citizen's ticket" without
opposition. In a statewide organizing effort in 1910, a Socialist
party was organized in the town.2

The first municipal election after the founding of the local
Socialist party was held in January 1911, and came at a time when
the town's economy was especially sluggish. Star Glass was
operating only two or three days per week and other businesses were
also in a depressed state. The workers' economic discontent and
uncertainty helped lead the fledgling Socialist party to victory
for the offices of mayor and recorder and four of the town council
seats. The only reason the new party did not win all five council
seats was that it had nominated only four candidates, believing
victory was unlikely. Voter turnout in this and subsequent Star
City elections was high, surpassing the vote polled in high-
interest presidential elections.3

In subsequent annual Star City elections, the Socialist party
maintained its control of the town. In 1913 and 1916 the party lost
two of the five council seats, as well as the mayor's office in
1916, but still maintained control of the municipal government. In
1912, 1914 and 1915, the party won every office. In some of these
elections, the Socialists won more than 60 percent of the votes
cast, while in other cases the elections were so close that
candidates tied. The Socialist-dominated town council then voted to
break the tie in favor of Socialist candidates. Typically, just
under one hundred Star City residents turned out to vote in these
town elections.4

The success of Star City Socialists in winning control of
municipal government was not unique. Historians have studied the
Socialist governments of Schenectady, New York; Minneapolis,
Minnesota; Flint, Michigan and many others. But Star City offers an
opportunity to examine the history of Socialist control of a very
small industrial town.5

The Socialist party flourished across the United States in the
first five decades of the twentieth century, supported by labor
unions, farmers and a smaller group of middle-class merchants and
professionals. The party's candidates sought to bring major
political and economic changes to the United States. Their chief
goal was to foster a society in which the workers would own the
"means of production," mines, farms and factories. Short of that
major goal, the Socialists supported a wide-ranging progressive
program including the referendum, abolishing child labor,
regulating corporations and prohibiting use of the National Guard
in labor disputes. The strongest Socialist nominee at the national
level was Eugene Debs, who was the presidential candidate in every
election between 1900 and 1920, except 1916. In his last two races,
he polled close to a million votes.6

In West Virginia, the Socialist party appeared wherever the
labor movement was flourishing. In the northern part of the state,
Socialists won control of the municipal government in Adamston, a
glass-company town south of Clarksburg, in 1912, and won the mayor
and recorder's offices in 1915. In the mountains of Tucker County,
Socialists controlled the key offices in Hendricks, home to many
unionized railroad workers, in 1912 and 1913. Also in the northern
part of the state the party won the mayor's office in Cameron, site
of a major pottery industry, and a city council seat in Morgantown,
home of several glass factories. Socialist candidates made
unsuccessful bids for office in many small towns in northern West
Virginia, and in larger towns including Clarksburg, Fairmont and
Elkins. In the southern part of the state, party members won
offices in several counties, especially in the coalfields.7

In Star City, the Socialists had an explicit set of goals woven
into their local platform. The preamble of the platform subscribed
to the establishment of a cooperative store, owned by town
residents, to reduce the high cost of living. A subsequent plank
endorsed the eight-hour day for persons working for the town. at a
daily wage of two dollars. The party pledged to hire Star City
residents first and an honest town government. It supported the
progressive principle of "recall," by which incompetent or
unpopular officials could be ousted in mid-term by the voters.
Finally, the platform promised municipal improvements, including
better streets.8

The Citizens' party wrote platforms too, but typically these
documents attacked the Socialists rather than offering alternative
ideas. In the 1915 campaign, for example, the Star City Citizens'
party platform complained of incompetence and neglect on the part
of the Socialist town government. They also charged that gambling
and drunkenness were widespread in the town. Socialists defended
themselves from the charges, pointing out, for example, that "Star
City has always had money in the bank under the Socialists, a
condition which never before existed." Even in the face of the
Citizens' party's charges, townspeople chose Socialists for all
town offices in 1915.9

By 1916-17, the national Socialist party suffered from serious
divisions. Most Socialists opposed any actions that would bring the
United States closer to involvement in the great European war. Many
Socialists deserted the party in 1916 to vote for presidential
incumbent Woodrow Wilson, who ran on the slogan, "He kept us out of
war." Then, when the United States declared war on Germany in 1917,
the national party split again, with many maintaining the anti-war
line and others arguing that Socialists support the war effort as
good citizens. These differences were so divisive that the
Socialists would never regain the strength they had shown in the
early 1910s.10

The Star City Socialists suffered from these same divisions. In
1912, Star City had been home to a united and flourishing Socialist
party and presidential candidate Eugene Debs polled 57 percent of
the vote in a contest between four major candidates. Four years
later, the party's presidential candidate Allan Benson won only
twenty-seven votes in the town, 26 percent of the total votes cast,
because many Socialists crossed over and voted for Wilson. By 1917,
national public opinion made it unmistakably clear that it was now
"un-American" to be a Socialist. In the close and disappointing
election of that year, the Socialists lost control of Star City
government, after six consecutive municipal victories.11

Meanwhile, Star City gave its wholehearted support to the
nation's war effort. Liberty bonds were sold in large numbers and
nearly all families agreed to participate in the national food
conservation program. In 1917, two major fires wrought havoc on the
town. The town hall burned down in October, possibly because of a
smoldering cigar left in the building and, two months later, Star
Glass, the town's keystone industry, burned to the ground.
Monongalia County's second-largest factory closed indefinitely and
the resulting economic hardship challenged the reelection potential
of the incumbent Citizens' party town officers. The Citizens also
gave their Socialist opponents an easy issue to exploit in the
campaign.12

In control of the town for the first time since 1910, Citizens'
party councilmen enacted a new tax ordinance. They began by
slightly lowering the basic rate of taxation, and then imposing a
one dollar "capitation tax" on each resident. One dollar was about
half the daily wage for many Star City residents. Socialists argued
that this tax favored the wealthy because under old tax policies
the more wealth one owned, the more tax one paid. The capitation
tax, on the other hand, applied to all equally. Factory owners,
landlords, workers, the unemployed and the disabled paid the same
rate of tax, however, absentee property owners were exempt from the
capitation tax.13

The Socialists used the capitation tax issue to recapture
control of the town government again in 1918, without calling
themselves Socialists. Like many Socialists all over the country
during and after World War I, the Star City party members changed
their label to avoid the un-American connotations associated with
the party. In 1918, and for elections into the mid-1920s, the
former Socialists of Star City called themselves the "Independent
Citizens' party," in opposition to the "Citizens' party"
candidates. The new name for the Socialists was successful, and the
Citizens' party never again won an election. By 1919, the
Independent Citizens often ran unopposed. In 1922, a new rival, the
"People's party" made up largely of former Citizens' party
supporters, appeared. Despite contention with a rival party, the
Independent Citizens successfully retained control of the town's
government until 1924, when the People's party finally seized
control of the municipal reins.14

Star City was unique among West Virginia towns in its continuing
Socialist control of the municipal government. Undoubtedly, the
glass industry is the key to understanding the allegiance of Star
City residents to the Socialist party. Glass blowers, noted one
writer of the early twentieth century, were the "`aristocrats' of
the labor world." Glass blowing was a difficult skill to master,
and employers treated skilled blowers with deference. Wages were
high, hours were short and the work place relatively safe. While
the work place was uncomfortably hot, unions demanded and won
factory closings during July and August. Blowers looked forward to
the summer "with the keen anticipation of men who can afford a
vacation and have the money to aid them in enjoying it."15 Glass
workers dominated the population of Star City with 125 of the 167
employed persons in the town working at Star or Seneca Glass. The
more skilled glass blowers were in a position to demand a voice in
town government, and they saw the Socialist party as the one party
that promised unequivocally to be the voice of labor. 16

While in some ways the glass workers were in an enviable
position, in others they felt tension and uncertainty. The glass
industry underwent periodic slumps, during which the factories
closed several days per week, with the attendant loss in wages for
the workers. A shortage of natural gas or sand could also idle the
factories. Finally, automatic glassblowing machines, first
introduced at Fairmont, threatened the workers' future security.
The automatic bottle blowers did not immediately threaten to
replace the highly skilled Star Glass Company workers because Star
Glass specialized in lamp chimneys rather than bottles. Many Star
City glass workers agreed the only security against the new
machinery was that it "become the property of the workers" and only
the Socialist party promised to achieve that goal.17

Many Americans in the early twentieth century assumed that
Socialism only flourished where immigrants made up a large
proportion of the population. After all, Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels were German, and it was true that Socialism flourished in
immigrant neighborhoods in New York, Chicago and other cities. The
Star City Socialist movement, however, was largely a home-grown
affair. At the time of the party's first municipal victory, only 13
of the town's 231 adult residents were foreign born. Less than one-
third were second-generation immigrants, primarily of German and
Irish descent.18

The 1910 census schedules for Monongalia County reveal some
insights into the ethnic and employment background of most of the
candidates who ran for Star City offices from 1911-13. Nine of the
twelve Citizens' party candidates and an equal number of the
Socialist party candidates participating in these elections can be
identified on the 1910 census schedules. Eight of the nine
Socialists were skilled workers in the glass factories, mostly
glass blowers. Only one of the Citizens' party candidates was a
skilled glass worker. The other eight were a factory manager, a
glass shipper, a railroad engineer, a farmer, two merchants and two
night watchmen.19

The Socialist candidates tended to be younger than their
opponents. The median age of the Socialists was thirty-six compared
to forty-three for the Citizens. All eighteen candidates were born
in the United States, with four Citizens and two Socialists in West
Virginia. However, three of the Socialists had at least one parent
born abroad, while none of the Citizens were second-generation
immigrants. The census returns give one indication of wealth by
noting whether or not the resident owned or rented a home. Three
Socialists, as compared to six Citizens, identified on the census
schedules were homeowners. The Socialists may have been renters, in
part, because of their relative youth.20

The composite picture provided by the census returns is of
Socialist candidates who were primarily glass blowers and other
skilled glass workers, younger than their opponents, less likely to
own their own homes, born in the United States, but more likely
than their opponents to have been born outside West Virginia as
second-generation immigrants. Newspaper evidence reinforces at
least part of this composite picture. The Morgantown New
Dominion explained that Star City elections featured "the old
residents on the one side, and the new element on the other."21
Citizens' party candidates were less likely than the Socialists to
be affiliated with the glass factories, or if they were employed in
glass, they were likely to be associated more with management than
with labor, as watchmen, for example.

While in office, the Socialists unfortunately spent considerable
time defending themselves from legal actions brought by members of
the Citizens' party. The Citizens initiated the first legal action
immediately after the Socialists' first victory, in January 1911.
Incumbent Mayor David S. Brewer of the Citizens' party alleged that
Socialist Mayor-elect William Shay was not eligible to serve, since
he had not paid tax on the minimum one hundred dollar property
value required by law. Shay responded that he had paid taxes on
twenty-five dollars of personal property and on a lot valued at one
hundred dollars held jointly with his wife. The outgoing town
council ruled that Shay was ineligible to hold office.
Recorder-elect Harry A. Higgins also failed to qualify to take
office. He admitted that he had paid taxes on only fifteen dollar
property valuation, and he did not press his claim to the
office.22

"Star City is on the verge of a civil war," reported the
Morgantown New Dominion, "which, it is hoped, may be settled
without bloodshed." When the new Socialist city council came into
office in February, they declared the mayor and recorder's offices
vacant, and elected Socialists to fill each. The incumbent mayor
and recorder claimed that they had the right to retain their
offices, but a circuit court judge threw their arguments out of
court.23

Over the next several years, Citizens' party leaders sniped at
the Socialist town fathers, arguing that under Socialist leadership
the town was deteriorating, especially streets, roads and sewers.
In October 1914, the town council moved to meet these criticisms by
offering for sale bonds valued at fifteen thousand dollars to be
used for paving and for sewer work. The bonds were given favorable
ratings by investors and the state government initially expressed
interest in buying some as an investment for the workers'
compensation fund. But, a "prominent Republican" attorney in
Morgantown predicted that the bonds would not sell "when it was
found out that the Socialists controlled the town." This prediction
proved accurate and the bonds were withdrawn from the market.24

After the bitter 1915 town election, Citizens' party leaders
again moved to block a Socialist from taking office, claiming that
Mayor-elect John F. Higgins had not paid the requisite amount of
personal property taxes. The Citizens hired as their attorney
former governor William E. Glasscock. Glasscock argued before the
town council that Higgins had paid taxes only on his personal
library, which should have been exempt from taxation. He also
argued that because Higgins lived at his mother's house, the
library was her property. Nearly every resident of the town turned
out to hear the proceedings and Higgins's testimony in his own
defense. The would-be mayor asserted firmly that the books were his
property and named the titles by memory: the Talmud, the
Koran, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, The Origin
of Species and many others.25

Glasscock sneeringly praised the defendant's taste in reading,
but remained steadfast that Higgins was ineligible and the library
should have been exempt from taxation. The Socialists' town
attorney Altha Warman hotly denounced the Citizens' party members,
accusing them of being cowards "in that they file a petition to set
aside the will of the people expressed at the polls." Higgins was
being blocked by "a small minority of disgruntled citizens who
refuse to abide by the result of the election," Warman concluded.
The town council ruled that Higgins was eligible to hold office,
but the Citizens appealed the case to the circuit court. Circuit
Judge George C. Sturgiss ruling in favor of the Citizens' party
made Higgins ineligible for office and forced the town council to
elect another mayor.26

Blocking Higgins's inauguration as mayor was just the beginning.
Shortly thereafter, Citizens' party members petitioned the circuit
court to dissolve the town's charter, alleging that the town
leaders "had failed to perform in any satisfactory degree those
things necessary for a municipality." Without a charter, the town
government would be dissolved and the county government would take
control of what had once been Star City. Judge Sturgiss,
recognizing Star City's recent difficulties, especially in keeping
the roads in good repair, ruled early in 1915 to grant the town
officers until October to make improvements.27

Again the town council considered a bond issue to finance street
improvements. This time, however, the bond issue was placed on the
ballot, allowing the voters of the town to accept or reject the
bond issue. The Citizens' party was accused of telling tenants that
if the issue passed, rents would increase. Prior to the election,
Circuit Judge Sturgiss came to Star City and urged voters to pass
the bond issue. He pointed out that the council could have adopted
the bond issue without voter approval. But, because the council was
made up of Socialists who believed in the principle of the
referendum, the voters would decide, voting to reject the bond
issue by a vote of forty-seven to fifty-eight. Facing a suspension
of the charter if it did not move forward with road repairs, the
town council reluctantly secured a bank loan to finance the
summer's work. The loan repayment was tied to anticipated August
tax revenues.28

In July, the Citizens' party returned to circuit court to demand
Judge Sturgiss revoke the town charter immediately, charging that
streets, alleys and sewers continued to deteriorate. They alleged
the street work undertaken caused further deterioration and that
Socialist officials had paid too much for the work. Finally, the
Citizens pointed out that the Socialists had been unable to win
passage of the bond issue. For this hearing, the town government
hired an engineer, who examined the improvements and reported
favorably on the work. He concluded that when the work was
complete, drainage and other problems would be solved. Judge
Sturgiss refused to rescind his earlier decision to issue his final
judgement in October.29

In June 1916, a bond issue and tax levy finally won the approval
of the voters of Star City. It is not clear why the voters finally
passed the bond. Perhaps they were heartened by the county
commissioners' decision to approve county money for improving the
road between Morgantown and Star City. The June bond issue passed
by a vote of seventy-three to twenty-two and, by the end of the
year, the streets of Star City were in good condition.30

Residents were not likely to forget that Star City was a
socialist, working-class town. The three pillars of community life
were the Socialist party local, the Young People's Socialist League
and Local Twenty-six of the American Flint Glass Workers' Union.
Nearly all of the local youth joined the Young People's Socialist
League, which boasted more than fifty members in 1914. The league
hosted dances, parties and debates, while the party local was noted
for its box suppers, ice cream socials, square dances and prominent
lecturers such as the fiery Mother Jones. Each year the local
sponsored a town-wide Christmas party at Socialist Hall, where each
child was given an orange and a pound of candy. The local became a
real center of the community, which undoubtedly aided the Socialist
candidates. To vote against the Socialists was to vote against a
bulwark of community life.31

Many devoted Socialists hoped the party's control of the town
would establish Star City as a great model of a Socialist
municipality. The Workingmen's Co-operative Store, an institution
founded by the Socialists, endeavored to use collectivism to
benefit the town's laboring folk. The Socialist platform of
December 1913 pledged the party's support to a cooperative store.
Townspeople were purchasing stock in the store and officers were
elected. The store sold groceries and other goods at prevailing
prices, but stockholders regularly received rebates of about 10
percent. Star City merchants undoubtedly disapproved of the new
cooperative store, but few of them were supporters of the Socialist
party.32

Administratively, Star City was a typical small West Virginia
town. Town leaders promoted such projects as laying boardwalks to
keep pedestrians out of the mud and, in 1913, purchasing the first
street lights for the town. The town council debated the idea of
taxing pool tables and vowed to end the practice of speeding after
the appearance of automobiles.33

As in other West Virginia municipalities, the mayor functioned
as chair of the town council and the chief law enforcement and
public safety officer. When vicious dogs threatened pedestrians,
the mayor ordered the town sergeant to insure that dog owners kept
their animals tied, or to "begin a process of elimination, using
the shot gun method." The mayor's direct involvement in law
enforcement was demonstrated by an event of August 1915, when a
number of rowdies descended upon a dance at Kauffield's Hall. A
brawl erupted and bystanders summoned Mayor R. C. Maurer. As the
Socialist mayor stepped onto the front porch of Kauffield's, a
rowdy took a swing at him. "He came back with a punch," a reporter
later noted, that "knocked Ed Burns off the porch. . . . [Burns]
dropped to the ground three or four feet below, and lay there."
Mayor Maurer arrested Burns and several others, but all escaped.
The newspaper account of the fight closed by noting that it was
believed the rowdies would not return.34

Members of the Citizens' party both elections and litigation to
dramatize their belief that Star City was poorly run by the
Socialists. It is true that an examination of the surviving records
of the town council shows that during the 1915 term, the town
recorder littered the minute books with gross misspellings, giving
at least superficial evidence of his lack of qualifications for the
office. Recorder William Kramer, a glass blower and second-
generation immigrant, wrote "soor" for "sewer," "siggrett" for
"cigarette" and "missalanious" for "miscellaneous." On the other
hand, good government can undoubtedly move forward even with a poor
speller in the recorder's office.35

But the Socialists had even more serious complaints about the
record keeping under the Citizen's party. They pointed out that the
town's account books under the Citizens were filled with entries so
vague as to be worthless. They cited entries such as "cash from
mayor . . . $14.00; cash for fines . . . $2.00 and `cash for
licenses, $2.92'." Such entries would prove useless if a question
arose as to whether a certain fine or fee had been paid. When
Socialist recorder R. C. Maurer took office in 1912, he found a
file of tax bills marked "uncollectable." Within a short period
Maurer had collected forty-two of the delinquent accounts.36

In contrast to the citizens, the Socialists issued regular
financial statements for the town and closed the books in the black
every year they held control. Star City under Socialist control
compares favorably and was typical of similar municipalities for
that time. Like a great many West Virginia small towns, Star City
did not involve the two major political parties in local elections.
Candidates instead ran on a variety of local and third party
labels. The town government experienced difficulties in raising
funds for major capital projects such as roads and sewers and found
its ability to govern hampered by incessant attacks from the
opposition party. It dealt successfully with law enforcement and
with mundane maintenance and repair of potholes, bridges, sewers
and street lights.37

Under the Star City Socialist government, the most significant
success was the sense of power and control granted to blue-collar
workers, who were unaccustomed to this role. From 1911 to 1924,
Star City factory owners, landlords and merchants were not as
dominant as capitalists in other towns. The Socialists regularly
felt the same joy that led Mayor Shay to burst the bass drum during
a victory parade. In January 1915, Mayor-elect John F. Higgins
wrote proudly to the Socialist party's national headquarters,
reporting on the recent town election. "The victory was sweeping,"
Higgins noted, "every candidate was elected by a handsome
plurality." Higgins carefully made a chart showing each office, the
names of the new Socialist officials and their occupations. This
chart ran in the national American Socialist newspaper, reflecting
Higgins's pride that Star City was governed by five glass blowers,
a carpenter and a laborer. Higgins ended his election report by
asserting that although the opposition had been keen, "we lambasted
them some, and some more, and fought the good fight of Socialism
and won hands down." Higgins proudly closed with a joyful, "Hurrah
for the International Socialist movement!"38

Notes

1. Morgantown New Dominion, 11 January 1915; American
Socialist (Chicago), 16 January 1915.

6. David A. Shannon, The Socialist Party of America: A
History (New York: MacMillan, 1955).

7. The standard reference on socialism in West Virginia is
Frederick Allan Barkey, "The Socialist Party in West Virginia from
1898 to 1920: a Study in Working Class Radicalism" (Ph.D. diss.,
University of Pittsburgh, 1971). See also Molly Ann
McClennen, et al, Socialists in a Small Town: The Socialist
Victory in Adamston, West Virginia (Buckhannon: n. p., 1992);
Parsons Advocate, 11 January 1912 and 9 January 1913;
Moundsville Daily Echo, 2 January 1914; Morgantown Post-
Chronicle, 5 and 9 April 1912. Further work needs to be done to
compile an accurate list of Socialist victories in the southern
part of the state.

11. Morgantown Post-Chronicle, 1 and 5 January 1917;
Morgantown New Dominion, 6 November 1912 and 5 January 1917
and Frederick, Cinder Heads in the Hills:The Belgian Window
Glass Workers of West Virginia (Charleston: West Virginia
Educational Services, 1988), 7.

12. Morgantown Weekly New Dominion, 10 and 31 October and
12 December 1917.

13. Morgantown New Dominion, 3 January 1918.

14. Minute Books, Star City Town Council, Star City town hall,
I:163 (1919), II:63 (1922) and 133 (1924). The surviving town
council minute books begin with 10 April 1915 and have no
significant gaps for the years covered by this study. Morgantown
Post-Chronicle, 1 January 1919.

15. Robert J. Wheeler, "The Passing of the Bottle Blower,"
International Socialist Review 11(February 1911): 449-57;
Barkey, "Socialist Party in West Virginia," 31-33.

16. Census of Population, Thirteenth Census of the United
States, 1910, (National Archives Microfilm Publication T624),
Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National
Archives. Returns for Star City are located on sheets 31-34 for
enumeration district 79 of Monongalia County, hereafter 1910
Census.

17. Wheeler, "The Passing of the Bottle Blower," 457. On idled
factories at Star City see, for example, Morgantown New
Dominion, 4 February and 4 March 1914 and 1 July 1915.

18. 1910 Census. "Adult residents" are defined as persons aged
sixteen or older. Many persons described as second-generation
immigrants had one American-born parent. In 1920, Star City's
residents were still overwhelmingly American born. See
Fourteenth Census (National Archives Microfilm Publication T625),
sheets 1-10 for enumeration district 102 of Monongalia County.

19. 1910 Census. Socialist candidates included six glass
blowers, two other skilled glass workers and one planing mill
foreman. Not considered here are two persons who changed parties
during this period.

20. Ibid.

21. Morgantown New Dominion, 6 January 1911.

22. Ibid., 25 and 26 January 1911

23. Ibid., 2 and 10 February 1911.

24. Morgantown Weekly New Dominion, 21 and 28 October
1914.

25. Morgantown New Dominion, 20 and 25 January 1915.

26. American Socialist, 22 May 1915; Appeal to
Reason (Girard, Kansas), 20 March 1915; Morgantown New
Dominion, 25 January and 1 February 1915.

27. American Socialist, 6 March 1915.

28. Minute Books, Star City Town Council, I:4-16 (1915);
Morgantown New Dominion, 29 May and 16 June 1915.